


Nowhere

by Ninkasa



Category: Fire and Hemlock
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-27
Updated: 2009-12-27
Packaged: 2017-10-05 08:29:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninkasa/pseuds/Ninkasa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"A Promise is all I want. A promise that you will never forget me."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nowhere

The thing that was worse than the terrible feeling of loss and fear was the fact that Polly couldn't explain to anyone why she felt so awful. It had only occurred to her after about a week of trying to discuss some of the things that had happened was that there was no one who really understood when she tried.

Fiona had never really known much about it, having met Polly long after Polly had met Tom and having been there for most of the time when Polly had forgotten. All of their other friends simply blamed Polly's split with Seb. This belief was aided by the fact that every time someone mentioned Seb, Polly got a look that – according to Fiona – could have frozen the fires of hell.

She had returned to her grandmother's house. Cold, wet and shivering, Polly had simply collapsed onto the front steps and hoped that Granny would be out soon, maybe to get the paper or something.

Granny had taken her into the house, wrapped her up and said calmly, "Have you lost something again?"

Polly had burst into tears.

*****

She should have said she'd forget him. It would have made it easier, probably.

Granny said this was stupid, because that would have defeated everything she had done.

"Why are you so upset?" she had said. "Why don't you get up and do something about it?"

This had been after two days of Polly floating around the house in pajamas and old slippers and refusing to take any phone calls, which was a problem because Fiona kept calling, which was driving Granny crazy and no doubt running up their phone bill.

Polly didn't quite understand what was wrong. Why she was "moping" as Granny called it. Part of it, she figured, was the fact that her memories were still running double in her head. The things that had happened and the things that she had believed to have happened were still slightly jumbled in her mind.

The other part was that she was simply miserable.

It was a terrible, sick feeling that took over her entire body and Polly marveled at the fact that she had ever thought she'd been miserable before. It was nothing compared to this.

Fiona had come two days after this to claim her and drag her back to school on a bus. Polly had been too shocked to really argue.

In the end, it was probably better to attempt to get back to what had once passed as her normal life.

****

"So, I think we should go to this concert," Fiona dropped down to sit on the floor next to Polly.

Polly had been eating ice cream, drinking coffee and staring at the book the Quartet had given her. Not really reading, just staring.

"Polly, really, you could at least pretend to be interested in what I'm saying."

Polly stared up at her. "What?"

Fiona rolled her eyes. "You need to get out and do something." She plucked the book out of Polly's hands. "So we're going to go out and do something."

Polly got up and shrugged her shoulders. Fine. She could let Fiona drag her out of doors. It would be easier than arguing about it for the next two hours.

They ended up in a small restaurant on the corner from their apartment, eating hamburgers and mostly sitting around watching people.

"I don't understand," Fiona said after a long time. "You ran away. Ended up at your grandma's and then stayed there. I had to drag you back into civilization and you still want to do nothing but hide out." She paused for a moment, and then said, "Polly, what the hell happened?"

Polly started at the beginning. Fiona rolled her eyes, but let her keep going. She explained everything she could. The day of the funeral, the hero business, the forgetting. Then she explained what had happened on Halloween, as best she could.

"Why did you stupidly say something like that?" Fiona said after Polly had finished the story.

"Because I had to," Polly said, feeling more miserable now than she had before.

"But why?" Fiona demanded. "And more importantly, why aren't you trying to find him now?"

"I said it," Polly said, getting frustrated and tired in one sweeping moment. "Therefore I have to mean it."

"But you DON'T mean it," Fiona argued back. "Clearly you don't, or you wouldn't be so worried. You would be excited; something along the lines of 'good riddance' would be in order. Not all of this sighing and lounging about eating ice cream."

Polly shook her head. Fiona had misunderstood everything she'd just said. Clearly, she hadn't been paying attention.

"I can't see him in the Here Now. I can't. I said as much." When Fiona opened her mouth, Polly kept talking. "Tom did it himself when he said that the things I know are true."

That wasn't exactly the way he'd put it, but the essence was the same.

"You can't see him the Here Now," Fiona said slowly.

Polly nodded, "right."

"So go No Where."

Polly just blinked and stared.

****

If Fiona was trying to annoy her to death, she was doing a phenomenal job of it.

Fiona had simply woken up about two weeks after Polly had told her about Halloween and announced that they must go out. Now. The fare for the cab must have been enormous and had Polly not been annoyed at having been drug out of bed at the crack of dawn, she might have volunteered to help pay.

The tiny restaurant they had come to was the most out of the way place she had ever seen. It was on the outskirts of a tiny little town that rather reminded Polly of Stow-on-the-Water. She kept this information to herself, though and simply followed Fiona into the restaurant and sat down, Fiona insisting that Polly sit with her back to the door.

They sat there for probably twenty minutes, Fiona constantly glancing at the door and then looking at the clock above the counter while a waitress bustled around and tried to bully them into buying more food than they could possibly eat.

Just as Polly was about to become fed up and tell the waitress to bugger off, Fiona jumped to her feet, announcing, "I have to go powder my nose!"

Polly nearly whipped her head around to look as Fiona started around the table towards the bathroom, pausing long enough to mutter,

"This is as close to No Where as I could find."

Polly's mouth opened and closed quickly and then Fiona was gone and someone had slid into the seat she had vacated from the other side.

"So, I think that in the next book, Tan Coul ends up being held prisoner by an evil sorceress and Hero has to rescue him."

Polly's head did whip around this time, causing her to crick her neck.

When several minutes had passed, Tom said, "Your friend is very persistent."

Polly nodded, wordlessly, afraid she might panic a bit. She wanted to look around to see if Laurel or someone had appeared, but was afraid that if she did, he would vanish.

For a long moment, she sat there, and then Polly said, calmer than she would have expected:

"And what do they do after that?"

Tom was silent, considering for a moment, then:

"I thought maybe we would figure that out along the way."


End file.
